Story One-Shots
by Alexander II Mapleshield
Summary: Hullo my dear readers. If you're wondering what this is, then allow me to answer your question. Since I haven't been very active lately, I've decided to post some pieces that I worked on during my hiatus before and after college.
1. Chapter 1

_**Dear Readers,**_

 _ **This piece - out of everything I might upload to this feed of chapters - might've been the biggest and most important one I've ever started. Originally, it was a joint project between myself and a few friends - most of whom, I'm no longer in contact with - and the project has been scrapped.**_

 _ **The original story was about an alien force invading Earth sometime in the future, and how one particular human decided to fight against them. He and girlfriend were looking for a quiet haven, and they found a mountain. Deciding to make their new home there. When called to help with invading forces, he met up with two old friends, who took over their little section in the army and decided to take out the aliens for good.**_

 _ **Their plan was to infiltrate the Alien** **Mother-ship** **and destroy it, which they did, but not before stealing some of the Alien's technology. After a while, the technology began affecting the man, and his friends put some distance between them. One of them left him behind and the other simply disregarded him.**_

 _ **The project was sidelined and scrapped after a few of the people and I had a falling out and dropped all contact. This is one part that I'd started and was the most proud of when I'd more-or-less completed it, and the guy who came up with the story idea approved enormously.**_

 _ **I hope you enjoy it.**_

 _ **Sincerely, Alexander II Mapleshield**_

* * *

Alexander shimmied and slithered his way through the vent pipe, his elbows ached from banging against the metal walls.

"Dammit," He cursed in his head, "This tunnel'd better end soon. I won't be able to swing my sword if I keep hitting my elbows like this."

At last, he saw the tunnel get brighter,

'Finally!' He thought to himself.

He braced himself for the outward burst into the sunlight, but he was stopped by a . . . something.

A pair of somethings. His stop was accompanied by a sheepish yelp.

"Unf!" He exclaimed.

Whatever they were, they were soft, and decidedly cushion-y – they were even covered by something pillow-worthy, but they were too thick to be made out of cotton only. In fact, they had almost cut off the air from his nose.

'Are these . . . cargo-pants?' He quizzed himself. Then he realized what he had pressed his face into.

"Well, this is interesting . . ." Alexander drawled sarcastically. His voice was muffled from behind the pair.

Suddenly, the 'cushions' moved, and Alexander's eyes were assaulted by the sun' rays.

"Whu- ?"

Before he could say anything else, a pair of hands grabbed onto the back of his sweater hood, and forcefully hauled him out of the shaft. He sailed a few yards before landing face-first into the ground and skidded along a few more there-after.

"Waah! Ooff! Aaooww . . ."

His attacker seemed pleased with themselves.

"And yer not scaly enough t'be an alien, so whaddiya here for?" She asked curtly.

Alexander perked up; his attacker was a woman.

'Not a very nice one.' He idly mused, 'And she's too strong.' But he couldn't dwell on this for too long.

"I'ya don't talk soon, I'm'na start puttin' more holes on yer face. Who'dya werk for?" She asked.

Alexander put his hands on the ground and carefully pushed himself back onto his feet, grunting and groaning all the way. When he reached his full height, he turned around, and observed his new acquaintance.

Indeed, this attacker was a woman, and she was wearing cargo-pants.

Her red Tank-top was cut off below her waist and was covered by an unzipped black leather biker's jacket; her cargo-pants were mottled with holes along their legs and thighs and held up with a brown leather utility belt. Her black hair was tied up in simple ponytail and fell to her waist; her eyes were a piercing greenish-blue, amplified by the anger in her glare.

Alexander halted his checkout, when he realized how angry she was. He cleared his throat and made a face.

"Y'know, that temper of yours could use some work. And now thanks to you, my face hurts." He prodded verbally.

"My name is Alexander . . ." He continued, not giving her the chance to cut-in.

"Mapleshield, some call me. I'm a freelancer of the Resistor Alliance, at your service." He bowed and waited for her reply.

"Well . . . Nice t'meet you . . ." She said, carefully re-holstering her twin pistols.

"My name's Evelynn Gadwalle. I work for the D-T-H. Wait, Resistor Alliance? You're with the Gorilla-man? Mm, I guess yer hairy enough." Evelynn said off-handedly. This made Alexander cross.

"Excuse me? I think he prefers 'The Hulk', or 'Ape-leader', aaannnddd, what's wrong with my hair?"

Alexander had been made fun of for having too much hair on his body before, and he wasn't going to take this kind of talk from anyone ever again.

"Oh nothin', I just think that you look very well suited for working with giant, flyin'-ass monkeys." Evelynn felt pleased with herself. But Alexander was ready for her.

"Oh well, I guess you'd know more about that. I've seen some of 'your guys', they're fuckin' animals." He retorted.

"Meh, can't argue there." Evelynn shrugged.

Then, Alexander started raising and lowering his eyebrows, and she realized what he meant.

"Oh, you cock-sucker!" She shrieked.

Alexander threw his head back burst out laughing, it was fun when he got to mess with people's words. Evelynn recovered,

"Whatever, what're y'even doin' here? An' more importantly, why the fuckin' sword? Izzat yer main weapon? Ye gotta be outta yer tiny-ass mind i'yer goin' up against the aliens with a friggin' katana!? Who the hell'd even do that anyway?"

Alexander simply grimaced. He wasn't going to admit it, but this woman had somehow managed to get his fire going – if only not as fast as she would probably want.

'Thank god for slow starts.' He thought to himself.

"I don't know, maybe, someone who actually knows how to use it?" He offered innocently, "But'cha can't say much about sword-fighting, you're covered in guns."

Evelynn snarled crossly,

"Hey, shut up man. I, at least, know how to use them." Then, she had an idea, "Wanna see how good I am?"

And without giving him a chance to reply, she hastily yanked the pistol from her right holster, and fired two shots. She felt great satisfaction from the feared look that crossed Alexander's face, and she waited to see as the bullets penetrated his chest before he slumped down onto the ground.

This is not, however, what happened. True, Alexander had been shocked by her action, but he had already reacted. He took hold of his katana's hilt and drew the blade out from its sheath. With one swift stroke, he split the two bullets in mid-air and stopped still. The split halves landed not too far away from where they stood

Evelynn could hardly believe what she had seen. She watched in utter disbelief as Alexander flourished his sword and re-sheathed it, in one definite motion.

'But, how . . .?' She wondered. Alexander recovered and looked her directly in the eyes.

"As for what I'm doing here, I'm looking for some of that Pre-queue-so-whatever-it-is-fuel. But there wasn't any map or guide that tells you where to go."

Evelynn took a moment to respond. She was still too stunned to believe what she'd seen.

"Uuhh . . . yo, Evie. Y'doin' okay?" Alexander waved his hand in front of her face.

Evelynn shook her head and snapped back into reality.

"Hre-hem . . . You mean the Precursor Monoliths? Those are underneath the main building foundations, and I've just found a way to get through the concrete slabs without breaking them. If you'd want, I can help you get down there." Evelynn offered.

"Oh, that'd be great, thank you." Alexander nodded,

"Why'd your alliance want them? Those things couldn't get a fire goin', even if ya cracked'em open." Alexander shrugged at this.

"Beats the shit outta me. Our chief Scientist says that the towers can be broken down and refined into some coal-like substance for the pumping engines we have in the mines in the Mountain, and those things are basically steam engines without wheels." He explained.

Evelynn made a face,

"You must be kidding. This Scientist o' yers must be fuckin' crazy if he thinks those monoliths'd actually do anything useful." Alexander shrugged again,

"Tell that to the Doctor, the pumping engines were designed by him." Evelynn looked at her new acquaintance.

Since meeting this sword-user, she had been observing his actions and reactions,

'He looks so nerdy right now.' She thought to herself.

She thought back to a few minutes earlier, and another thought floated to the surface of her mind.

'. . . This guy is still a virgin. I can bet money on it. I can see exactly how hard this guy is trying to look cool.' Then she thought of something else,

"Say, how old are you?" Evelynn asked. Alexander looked surprised,

"Wh- me? I'm twenty-one years old, gonna be twenty-two in a few months, I think." Evelynn was shocked,

"Only Twenty-one? Aren'cha kinda young ta be **_this_** deep in the field?" She asked,

'Welp, at least I know how much older I am . . .' she thought cheekily. Alexander was, of course, oblivious to her musings, and carried on.

"Normally, I'd agree with you," He started carefully,

"But seriously, we're in the middle of an apocalypse. Who gives a shit?" He raised one eyebrow and both of his hands questioningly, to emphasize his point.

Evelynn couldn't argue with this. Since the first invasion, any and all existing armies – new or old – were trying to scrape up as many new recruits and soldiers as possible, and the leader of her army was no real exception.

By now, Alexander was done with playing around, and looked at his potential ally,

"SO," He said sharply, "How do you suggest we get to the Monoliths?"

Evelynn blinked,

'That was quick of him.' She quipped mentally.

"Well," She began, "There're small holes along the bottom concrete slabs, and it's just big enough for one person to fit through."

Alexander was rapt with attention; Evelynn went on with her explanation,

"Now I don't need to bother with the Monoliths, but I do need something else that's underneath them. So, here's what I think we should do," She paused,

"If you can handle shimmying through the holes, I can operate the crane, over there, to get you in and out from the crawl spaces." She pointed to the large scaffolding behind them.

Sure enough, there was a crane at the very top; but it didn't look safe to use. The scaffolding itself was rusted and worn from disuse, and the control box, at the top with the winch controls, looked as though it had been broken before the invasion had occurred. Alexander felt stifled.

"Are you sure that crane is the only one we can use?" He asked, trying as hard as he could not to sound like he was worried. To his dismay, Evelynn nodded,

"'Fraid so, kid. This crane is the only one here, on the site." Then she realized, "Why? Ya scared?"

She smiled broadly, Alexander took none of it.

"Nmmm-yeah . . . but not for just for myself." He started, but before Evelynn could say anything else, he cut her off, "Whatever, if this is the only way, we've got no choice. Besides,"

He trailed off, and put a hand to the gun on his right hip.

"We're not alone out here . . ." With one move, he fired three shots over Evelynn's left shoulder.

Evelynn was too shocked to move, until she heard the sound of a body dropping. She whipped around, to see one of the aliens landing face-first on the ground, oozing its prune-hued blood.

"We don't have much time Evelynn, come on." Alexander re-holstered his gun and ran towards the crane's ledge.

Again, Evelynn meanwhile, was too surprised to do anything just yet.

"Fuck," She mused, "Maybe startin' younger'd've been the best idea."

And with that, she rushed off towards the crane.


	2. Chapter 2

_**Dear Readers,**_

 _ **Thank you for making it to the end of this piece. I hope you enjoyed it.**_

 _ **As you may have read from my profile, I am close friends with a user who has been on here for longer than I have. His name is EricTheEpic13, and we've been friends for a few years now; we connected in High School, and from there we became good friends.**_

 _ **We later discovered that we have a shared interest in writing, although - naturally - our projects differ vastly from one another. This was one such venture: the idea for this one - if it wasn't obvious enough, came from the Zombie-fighting/Wizard game that the famous Youtuber: Tobuscus created, some few years ago. As far as I can remember, the game isn't too old, and it's still for sale on the App store and Google play. Although the original plotline for this was lost sometime ago.**_

 _ **You are going to find that a number of these stories are actually from a different perspective from AIIM's, as I thought it would be a good exercise to write from a point of view outside my own.**_

 _ **Anyways - this might be the longest intro I've ever written so far - I'll end my rambling here, I hope you all enjoy this short piece.**_

 _ **Sincerely, Alexander II Mapleshield**_

* * *

We three thundered down the old dirt road, the zombies braying and snarling behind us; Abe was almost out of breath, and Alexander was struggling to keep him on his feet. I was too tired to see what was going on around us; finally, I found myself slowing down.

"Dammit . . . I can't run anymore . . .!" I panted,

"We . . . need . . . a . . . place to . . . hide . . ." Abe coughed and spluttered as he was hauled along,

"Yeah," Alexander wheezed, "Like a . . . big wooden fortress . . . in the middle of the road . . .?"

He gestured forwards with his chin and slowly began to drop to the ground; I whipped around, and I was surprised to see that there was a big wooden tower standing in the middle of the road.

"WHA!? Where did that even come from?" I shouted before rushing up to the door.

I found that I didn't have the strength to knock so I ended up throwing myself, chest first, up against the big doors.

"Eric! Don't do that! You'll damage your ribcage!" Alexander called out, but I was still too tired to hear or listen properly.

I kept ramming into the doors trying to force them open.

But it was no good.

Abe and Alex pulled up behind me and gave out with gasps and hoarse wheezes; with a final effort, I rammed the doors again, but instead of feeling the usual bone-crunching pain of wood on cartilage, I crashed into something relatively soft, and decidedly frail. It almost felt like a really thin piece of wood.

I felt myself land on a cold, hard floor, and I passed out there.

Some indefinable later . . .

I woke up on the aforementioned cold, hard floor that I had passed out on earlier; Abe was forcing the doors shut, while Alexander took hold of a large rectangular plank and tilted it onto the door's latches, it landed with a loud thud.

I struggled to sit up and tried to look around, but the lulling feeling of exhaustion had too strong of a hold over me. When I finally got to my feet, Abe was busily trying to support my weight.


	3. Chapter 3

**_Dear Readers,_**

 ** _This was an idea that EricTheEpic13 and I collaborated on for a while. Of course, we never did get around to finishing it, as our interest in the Nekopara franchise began to dwindle._**

 ** _We both had our own reasons for losing interest, but we'd agreed that we didn't really care to carry this idea through to completion. Aside from that, the plot is a little too messy, and edgy - in my considered opinion. And to add to that, I'd only established the very basic outline of the story before revisiting the idea._**

 ** _With that in mind, I decided to scrap the project. But not without saving the original writing I'd done so far - I'm afraid it's not too much, but it should give a general idea of where the story might've gone._**

 ** _Sincerely, Alexander II Mapleshield_**

* * *

So, I was heading home one particular day, when I noticed that an old friend of mine was walking and talking to a lady-type. Now, I knew this person very well, and I knew that it was impossible for him to have a girlfriend, but seeing him walking with a beautiful lady-type like this, made question my own skillz . . .

I felt left out! Like, was there some sort of new dating strategy that had come out, and it hadn't reached my computer yet, or something else like that?

I had no frikkin' idea . . .

So, the next day I asked him.

I'd have asked him there and then, but I was just at my doorstep, and I was pretty sure I was gonna embarrass the dude if I just went to him and asked who his girlfriend was.

I managed to corner this bitch at his locker before the bells sounded,

"Hey, man!" He turned and grinned when he saw that it was me.

Before I go any further, I would like to point out that this guy, has been a friend of mine since I started high school.

"Waz- What it iz, brudda?" He called back.

He was going to say: 'Wazap!' But, he's learned that saying that was just another way of asking me to say 'The Sky'.

After some light banter, I asked,

"Yo man, who was that hot-chick you were walkin' with yesterday?"

This guy looked so horrified when I asked that, the satisfaction was awesome.

"Whu- you saw that? Oh yeah, we live in the same direction, don't we?"

This guy tended to be a little on the loopy-side of things if he didn't have a coffee in the mornings.

***INSERT-TIME-SKIP***

After a few weeks, I noticed that Christopher hadn't been showing up at school for a few days. Sprinkles pointed this out when she entered to the building; she hadn't noticed his smell or seen him in the big crowds near the Smoker's Wall or at the Cafeteria's entrance, this made me very worried.

The next day, I managed to catch him walking onto the campus; he looked exhausted: his hair had grown out much longer, and was beautifully unkempt; the bags under his eyes had gotten bigger and seemed darker, and he seemed a lot thinner and smaller than what I remembered.

"Hey, Chris?" I called out.

He turned to face me, and almost immediately I could see that it was my old friend, but it didn't feel like him at all. I walked him over to his locker and he explained his situation:

His parents, Karlton and Sherryl, had been arguing over something that had been causing the restaurant a fair bit of trouble over the last few months, and now it had turned into a legal battle. It seemed usual to me since he's such an easy-going person, but he was caught in the middle of the fight; both his sisters and younger brother had chosen sides, even his grand parents were getting involved, which just went to show that this issue was a big one.

I felt very bad for him when I saw this. Then he explained that he had been trying to remain neutral in this conflict since he wasn't ready to butt heads with anyone in his family, since this issue was as big as it was; they had been hounding him to take a side for almost four weeks, so he decided to disappear and catch a break.

His uncle had no interest in the issues of his extended family and was willing to shelter his nephew while everyone butted heads. Chris had been locked in his room since his parents would stand in front of his door and demand an answer from him, and he always took the lock with him during the day, in case his parents tried to remove it from the door and approach him directly.

Eventually, he heard them discuss the idea of taking the door away from him just to get an answer, and that was why he'd called his uncle to take him away; he even had to escape out his bedroom window.

That was how bad the situation was for him.

But then he told me that his uncle had been found out, so he'd been renting an apartment near where one of our childhood friends was living and he had taken up a small part-time job near the school; also, for the last few days, he'd been working non-stop trying to reach his first month's rent deposit amount.

This at least explained why he looked so tired, and why I hadn't seen him for the last few days. He was a good person; everyone I knew liked him, so why had this happened?


	4. Chapter 4

_**Dear Readers,**_

 _ **This is one of the latest pieces I've worked on since getting back into contact with my old friend, EricTheEpic13, during our brief time in Drama class.**_

 _ **He'd shown me a few pieces that he'd printed out when we were in High school together, and revisiting them a few years later, he regretted writing them in such an edgy fashion - for his sake, I won't publish those (I couldn't even if I wanted to, because that would mean retyping the whole piece, exactly as it was written, but quite frankly, I'm not arsed to do that.) - but I will be editing the rest of the ones that I do have.**_

 _ **This particular one was my personal favourite after he showed it to me. And with some tweeking, I input my own OC into the writing. I thought it might make for an interesting encounter between the two of them.**_

 _ **Anyways, without any further rambling from me, enjoy this joint effort between two old friends.**_

 _ **Sincerely, Alexander II Mapleshield**_

* * *

One peaceful afternoon, James was lounging around on the beach with his friend, Fae; they were basking in the sun, facing the ocean, when James had a thought.

"Hey," he asked, gazing out to the horizon, "Why are we here again?"

"We've got a day off!" Fae cheered, playfully punching his shoulder, "Drop your 'Hero-act' for a bit and live a little!"

She took a sip of her soda and sighed contentedly; although she hadn't meant it to be, James' shoulder was sore from her punch.

Fae was the Half-blood daughter of Lord Dracula, so even though she was a Vampire, she would be safer in sunlight than her father.

"Is that it?" James deadpanned,

"Well why not?" Fae asked, "We've got the free time for it."

"I didn't stay unconscious for three years, just to get the 'free time', Fae." James grunted, and keeping his gaze trained forwards, he relaxed in his chair.

Hearing this, Fae decided she'd had enough. James watched from the corner of his eye as she got up from her chair and walked in front of him. He drank in the sight of her bare figure; her choice of outfit was one to live for – a two-piece bikini with golden rings in the straps. Fae had a habit of dressing in a shade of red that matched with James' right eye; he just assumed that she was trying to show-off her 'Vampiric Essence' – **if** that _was_ what she called it.

"You _really_ **are** a buzz-kill, y'know that?" she asked, "I mean seriously, you might've at least tried to go out to the sea-line and wet your feet a little."

"I don't like sand." James mumbled, "It's coarse, rough, and irritating . . . and it gets everywhe-"

"Stop quoting Star Wars!" Fae cried, "I know it's not how you really feel. Besides, you look ridiculous, just sitting there in your regular clothes. It's burning out here! I could've gotten you a swimsuit, or something."

At last, James lost patience.

"I can't help it!" he shouted, "It's not the same anymore."

"What isn't?" Fae asked,

"Swimming." James replied, "Or looking at and doing the girls . . . or your girls- I-I don't get the same pleasure I used to when I did those things before. The part of my soul that housed those emotions doesn't exist anymore."

"Huh . . ." Fae thought for a moment, "So, does this mean you're gay now, or something?"

"No Fae," James sighed, "I'm not gay."

"Oh really?" Fae smirked and rubbed her breasts, "By the way, you've never said anything about wanting to do **anything** to my girls before~ . . ."

"I didn't think you'd want me to." James grunted, "Are you saying I can?"

"No, I'm saying I'd let you because I know you so well." Fae grinned, "I've noticed you and your wandering eyes loads of times."

James was suddenly nervous,

"And after all this trouble, you finally say something?" He exclaimed, "Why didn't you tell me sooner?!"

"Well, you'd never asked me!" Fae chirruped, "Besides, I know you don't see me like that for my own sake."

James recovered,

"It's not that I can't see you that way." He explained, "The feelings I have left aren't what people look for when they consider partners."

Fae didn't want to hear anymore; she slapped her hands against James' cheeks and cupped his face.

"Ow."

"Don't think about it too much." She said sweetly, "I'm gonna get us some more soda. You stay here."

And with that, Fae sauntered off to the nearest vending machine; James watched the sway of her hips with minute interest, almost upset that she seemed to get smaller the further away she got.

Once she was out of sight, James rolled his eyes.

 _'_ _Stay here?'_ he thought, _'I mean, it's not like I'm not goin' anywhere right now, but seriously? What am I, her loyal puppy-guard-dog?'_

James stopped thinking about that. He sat on the edge of his chair with his staff in-hand – his hands were resting on the top of his staff and his chin was resting in them – he was still thinking about what he had said to Fae.

Although it was true that the part of his soul that housed emotions had been destroyed, he still held a number of them. But he didn't allow them to dictate his actions – he thought they made him very weak.

To hear James tell it, you would think that he was a very shy person. Since the accident, he had never confessed to having a crush on anyone, because he didn't want to put anyone in danger.

"You know, I didn't think you'd actually stay here." Fae said blandly,

James looked up to see her handing him a can of soda.

"Well, I mean, yeah," James replied taking the soda can, "I **could've** left. But I **didn't**."

"Yeah, I can see that." Fae mumbled, "I thought you'd've left already, you were complaining about being stuck here at the beach anyways."

"Well, yeah, I was," James continued, "I'm only staying because you called me out for the day. If it'd been anyone else, I'd've said no."

Fae paused and sat back down, she felt that she had a lot to think about. James, meanwhile, was inspecting the soda that Fae had gotten him,

 _'_ _Hmm . . .'_ He thought, _'Lime-pop . . . this's gonna be a bitter-sweet one.'_

As he began reading the list of ingredients, James felt something hit his shoulder.

"Ow." He grunted,

He thought nothing of it until he noticed that the something had gotten stuck to his shoulder, and that his soda can was leaking from opposite sides,

"What the fuck?" He asked,

Fae looked over,

"You got an arrow in your shoulder." She said numbly,

"Izzat what that was?" James asked with interest, "I thought it was a beach ball, or somethin' . . ."

James grasped the arrow's shaft and pulled hard, the arrowhead had snapped off and stuck in his shoulder, leaving him with the wooden shaft and feathered end in hand.

"Jesus Christ, you had an arrow in your shoulder!" Fae exclaimed, "Where's its head?"

James looked back at his shoulder,

"Umm . . . it's inside me?" He said numbly, "Well . . . I hear Iron is good for the body . . ."

James rolled his shoulder, melting the arrowhead inside of his skin with his body temperature.

"Headless Horseman!" called a voice, "If you liked that Iron, get ready for sum'ore!"

Fae and James looked up; they hadn't noticed until too late that an archer had arrived in a helicopter overhead.

 _'_ _What dafuq?'_ James was puzzled, _'How did he even hear that?'_

"Uh-humm . . ." James faltered sarcastically, "You do realize that chopper has guns on it right?"

"Yeah, and?" The Archer asked, bluntly,

"The bullet is mightier than the arrow, right?" James went on, "You can't kill me with either of those things, but a gun will more damage to me than a bow."

"Hmph, then," The Archer replied, posthumously, "At least let me give you a scar to remember me by!"

"I fuckin' don't even know you!" James shouted, "Fae, quick, hide!"

Their fight began.

The Archer had a set of explosive arrows; his helicopter was armed to the propeller blade, equipped with a gunner seats and machine guns. Inside the helicopter was a backup S.W.A.T. unit, kitted out with all the necessary riot gear.

 _'_ _Clearly, those guys won't leave the chopper_ _until_ _and_ _ **unless**_ _this 'bowman' goes down.'_ James thought,

The Archer fired off another few shots, more than enough for James to analyze his weapons system,

 _'_ _Hmm, the explosives aren't too bad for a 'bowman','_ James quipped analytically, _'The triggers for the arrows seems to run on a rudimentary burst-on-touch system. Apply pressure to Pad-A and BOOM!'_

James looked around to check if people were getting hurt; luckily, no one was, and he began to formulate his attack plan.

 _'_ _To use his pressure against him . . .'_ He went on, _'I would have to catch one of the arrows as he shoots it at me, and throw it right back at him. Yeah, this'll totally work!'_

And it did, once he caught an arrow.

After catching it, he twirled it through his fingers and launched it back the way it came. The arrow pierced through the Archer, just moments before the trigger system could register the pressure.

The explosive went off with a loud bang, the explosion practically tore The Archer's left shoulder off, and he was sent sprawling away. James walked over to him,

"What . . .?" The Archer rasped, "How did you- . . . do that . . .?"

"Weelllll, you see," James drawled, "I **am** _The_ **Headless Horseman** , after all. I might not be alive like you, but I can still pull back and let go, if ya catch-a mah drift."

James picked The Archer up and stared deeply into his eyes, his own now shone a bright shade of fiery orange.

"Wh-what're ya . . . gonna do t'me?" The Archer gasped,

"I'm gonna steal yer soul." James answered bluntly, "Don't struggle, it'll hurt less if you keep still."

James sapped The Archer's soul from his body and directed the energy into the underworld, for his mentors to pass judgement. James dropped The Archer and his body fell limply to the ground – The Archer was alive, but you wouldn't know it if you saw.

James turned back to his staff, it was still in the same place he'd left it before and standing upright. But before he could retrieve it, he remembered something.

"Oh right . . ." he drawled, "Swat team . . ."

James kicked up his staff and flourished it around as he turned.

"Surrender!" Called the captain,

"Ah shit." James grumbled,

He was about to attack, when he noticed a blue blur, tearing cheek along the beachline towards him. The Blue Blur passed through the S.W.A.T. team, gracefully zig-zagging between each member and cutting them down.

"Oh-ho-ho, no way!" James grinned excitedly, "That ain't possible!"

But it was.

The Blue Blur didn't seem to be moving its feet, but it moved faster than it should've and its hands appeared to be on fire.

James smiled; he knew who this was.

With his fiery 'landing lights' shining brightly, The Blue Blur skidded elegantly to a halt behind James. As soon as he stopped, every body he'd passed dropped, burned and bled.

"I actually kinda enjoyed that." The Blur mumbled, "I would only do it one more time, just for fun."

James laughed, now he **really** knew who this was,

"Alexander!" he cheered, "Dude, how long's it been, like, two- three years?"

Alexander turned around, sheathed his blade and grinned.

"Hullo James," He said cheerfully, "Fancy seeing you here. How'd you know it was me?"

"Easy." James explained, "You're the only one I know who sounds like George Carlin and Ringo Starr did the Fusion-Dance."

"Aw, come on." Alexander whined jokingly, "I can't help that."

"Man, I'm only kidding," James chuckled, "You're also the only guy I know who can use fire and earth as separate elements at the same time."

This made Alexander chuckle. Just then, Fae returned; earlier, she had ducked under her chair, tied a towel around her, rolled out, swiped her clothes and ran to the restrooms not too far away.

Although she had nothing to worry about, she wasn't fond of her build; she hated having a perky pair of breasts at times like this, when she had to move quickly and they would just get in her way, or when other men might turn their gaze on her.

But now – a few minutes later – very quick for a girl – especially for her – she had come back in her regular clothes: a blood red tank top, and a beige pair of khaki shorts, and her signature beach sandals.

James and Alexander were still busy chatting to each other as she came into view. She shifted her gaze between them,

"Is . . . is this guy a friend of yours?" Fae asked, anxiously, "Or is he a relative? Or an enemy?"

"What?" Alexander was puzzled,

"No, he's not a relative of mine." James chuckled, "He's an old friend. This, Fae, is my high school buddy, Alexander – that one guy I've told you about, you remember, right?"

"Alexander Mapleshield." He introduced himself with a bow, "At your service, Miss- uhh . . ."

"Fae." She replied, curtly, "My name is Fae Lilith Draco, daughter of Lord Vladimir Dracula. It'd be _your_ **pleasure** to be at my service."

Alexander frowned,

 _'_ _Not with that attitude it wouldn't.'_ Alexander thought, _'Is this the girl that James spends most of his time with nowadays? I can already tell how painful this'n's gonna be . . .'_

James seemed to sense Alexander's thoughts and decided to try helping him out.

"Dude, don't worry." He whispered, "She's just acting right now, she's a decent 'person' when you get to know her."

"Is this the same girl you wrote to me about that one time?" Alexander asked back, "She seems nothing like what you told me."

"I hope you both realize that I can hear you talking." Fae scowled, "And that I know what you're talking about."

"Well," James mumbled, "Buddy . . . you may wanna run . . ."

"Meh," he replied, blandly, "I could handle her."

"Stop doing that!" she shouted.


End file.
